Rebekah Brooks charged over phone hacking

Rebekah Brooks, a former chief executive of Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper, has been charged with perverting the course of justice over a phone hacking scandal at one of the media mogul’s papers, British prosecutors said on Tuesday. “I have concluded ... there is sufficient evidence for there to be a realistic prospect of conviction,” said Alison Levitt, Principal Legal Advisor to the Director of Public Prosecutions. Also charged were Brooks’s race horse trainer husband Charlie, her secretary and other staff from News International, including her driver and security officials from the British newspaper arm of Murdoch’s News Corp media empire. The maximum sentence for perverting the course of justice is a life prison term. Police re-launched an investigation in January last year into claims journalists at Murdoch’s News of the World tabloid routinely hacked into the phones of celebrities, politicians and victims of crime to generate front page stories. They are also investigating whether staff hacked into computers and made illegal payments to public officials including the police to get ahead in their reporting. More than 160 staff are now working on one of the biggest investigations ever carried out by London police and almost 50 people have been arrested. Brooks was charged with concealing material from detectives, conspiring to remove boxes of archive records from the company's headquarters, and hiding documents, computers and other electronic equipment from the police. Also charged were Brooks' race horse trainer husband Charlie Brooks, her secretary and other staff who worked for News International, including her driver and security officials. In a statement, Brooks and her husband said: "We deplore this weak and unjust decision. After the further unprecedented posturing of the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) we will respond later today after our return from the police station." The news is a personal blow for Murdoch and also embarrassing for David Cameron, the British prime minister, who was a close friend of Brooks and her husband. The charges are the first to be laid since police launched a new inquiry last year into allegations that journalists at the News of the World hacked into the phones of celebrities, politicians and victims of crime to generate front page stories. The newspaper was shut down in July last year over the allegations and Brooks resigned from her post at News International. Dubbed by some the "fifth daughter" of Murdoch, Brooks edited the News of the World from 2000 to 2003 and went on to become the first female editor of The Sun daily tabloid, Britain's most widely read newspaper, for six years.